"On Preaching" from the Confessions (#11)

Our opponents attribute justification to love because everywhere they teach and require the righteousness of the law. We cannot deny that love is the highest work of the law. Human wisdom looks at the law and seeks righteousness in it. Thus the great and learned scholastics proclaimed the highest work of the law, and to it they attributed justification. Deceived by human wisdom, they did not see the true face of Moses but only his veiled face, just as the Pharisees, philosophers, and Mohammedans. We for our part preach the foolishness of the Gospel, which reveals another righteousness, namely, that because of Christ, the propitiator, we are accounted righteous when we believe that for Christ’s sake God is gracious to us. We know how repulsive this teaching is to the judgment of reason and law and that the teaching of the law about love is more plausible; for this is human wisdom. But we are not ashamed of the foolishness of the Gospel. Because of Christ’s glory we defend it and we ask Christ for the help of his Holy Spirit to make it clear and distinct. (Tappert, The Book of Concord. Fortress Press: Philadelphia, 1959, p.139; Apology IV: 229-30)